Gigantes Plaki: Greek Baked Giant Beans, from Dried Beans or Ready in Minutes

Gigantes plaki is the Greek dish of giant white beans baked in the oven with tomato, onion, herbs, and a generous amount of olive oil, until the sauce thickens and the top takes a little colour. You soak dried gigantes overnight, simmer them until tender, then bake them in their sauce for about an hour. In Greece it is a main course, not a side: served warm or at room temperature with bread and a piece of feta, and often better the next day.

This recipe serves four and follows the home method, from the dried bean to the baking dish. Further down you will find which gigantes to buy, how plaki differs from yahni, the version that is ready in two minutes for the evenings when nobody cooks, and how to keep and reheat it.

• 

  Preparation time

  02:30

• 

  Serves

  4

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  Cuisine

  Greek

Ingredients

• 500g dried gigantes beans
• 150ml extra virgin olive oil
• 2 medium onions, finely chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 carrot, finely diced
• 1 celery stalk, finely diced
• 400g chopped tomatoes, tinned, or 4 ripe tomatoes, grated
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tsp dried Greek oregano
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 small bunch flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 1 tsp sugar, only if the tomatoes are sharp
• 250ml of the beans' cooking water
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

How to make gigantes plaki, step by step

1. Soak. The evening before, put the beans in a large bowl and cover them with at least three times their volume of cold water. Leave them for 10 to 12 hours. They roughly double in size.
2. Cook the beans. Drain and rinse them, put them in a large pot with fresh cold water to cover by a few centimetres, and bring to the boil. Skim the foam, lower the heat and simmer gently for 50 to 70 minutes, until a bean is tender right through but still holds its shape. Start tasting at 45 minutes: older beans take longer. Keep 250ml of the cooking water, then drain.
3. Make the sauce. While the beans cook, warm half the olive oil in a wide pan and soften the onion, carrot and celery over a medium-low heat for 10 minutes without letting them brown. Add the garlic for one minute, then the tomato paste for another, stirring. Add the tomatoes, oregano and bay leaf, season with salt and pepper, and simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Assemble. Heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan). Put the beans in a baking dish of about 30 × 20cm, pour the sauce over them, stir in the parsley, and add enough cooking water for the sauce to come level with the beans. Pour the rest of the olive oil over the top.
5. Bake. Bake uncovered for 50 to 60 minutes, until the sauce has thickened and the beans on top have taken some colour. Check at 30 minutes and add a splash of water if the dish looks dry.
6. Rest. Leave the dish for 15 minutes before serving. The sauce settles as it cools, and the flavours come together.

Which gigantes beans to use

Gigantes are large, flat white beans grown mainly in northern Greece, where two areas hold a protected geographical indication. For plaki, you want beans that stay whole in the oven, which is what the Greek varieties are grown for.

All three work in this recipe with the same times. The PGI beans carry the name of the area where they are grown; the organic beans suit a kitchen that buys organic. See all Greek legumes, dried and ready in one place.

Gigantes plaki and gigantes yahni: the difference

Both are giant beans cooked with tomato, onion and olive oil. Plaki finishes in the oven, uncovered, so the sauce reduces and the top colours slightly. Yahni is cooked in a pot on the hob, so the beans stay softer and the sauce looser. Same beans, a different finish.

The quick version, ready in two minutes

On a weeknight when nothing has been soaked, there is gigantes yahni from 3 Alfa: giant beans already cooked with tomato, onion, olive oil, and parsley, sealed in a pouch that keeps in the cupboard. Two minutes in the microwave, or a few in a small pan with a spoonful of water, and it goes on the plate with bread and feta.

For a cupboard that covers several evenings, the Greek legume dinner set brings two pouches of gigantes yahni and two of revithada, the chickpea stew from Sifnos.

And fasolada?

Fasolada is the other great Greek bean dish: a soup of small white beans with carrot, celery, tomato and olive oil, often called the national dish. It uses a different bean and a different method, so it has its own place on the table. If you want it without the soaking, the ready fasolada in our fresh range travels fresh and only needs warming.

Serving, keeping and reheating gigantes plaki

Serve gigantes plaki warm or at room temperature, never straight from the fridge, with bread for the sauce and a piece of feta. In Greece it is a dinner on its own, sometimes with olives or a green salad alongside. It contains no meat, dairy, or eggs, which is why it belongs to the dishes cooked on the fasting days of the Orthodox calendar.

It keeps for three to four days in a closed container in the fridge and tastes better on the second day. Reheat it gently, covered, in the oven or in a pan with a spoonful of water. It also freezes well for up to three months.

The beans, the olive oil, and the ready dishes in this recipe are sold by Greek Flavours and shipped from Greece. For more autumn dishes from the same pot, read when Greek cooking returns to the pot. Delivered across Europe.

Frequently asked questions about gigantes plaki